House to vote to ease flood insurance rate hikes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The No. 2 House Republican says the GOP-controlled chamber will vote later this month to ease some of the flood insurance premium increases hitting both coastal homeowners and people in inland flood zone.

Virginia Republican Eric Cantor says the House measure won't go as far as a Senate-passed bill that amounts to a four-year delay of premium increases enacted less than two years ago. Those changes were intended to reform the much-criticized federal flood insurance program, which is about $24 billion in the red.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency's implementation of the reforms is threatening some homeowners with shocking premium increases that would make many people unable to afford their homes or sell them.